Saturday, July 19, 2008

Beer Run


You can't have crab without beer.

So SG was dispatched to retrieve beer from the semi-distant convenience store, about a 20-minute round trip.

As soon as his ignition fired up, Lila called me. To say I was happy would be understate the matter by a factor of some multi-digit magnitudes. Instantly, I went on skype (my best friend, these days) and called her. They (?...Lila, SG, mebbe daughter?) went out with a crabber and retrieved a couple of pots today. Crab was in the offing for dinner. Entirely plausible. We gabbed for 20 minutes or so. She sounded wonderful: happy (almost), relaxed, comfortable. I haven't heard her sound so good in weeks. We laughed a lot.

The wind is up, there, near Cape fear, cuz there's a little storm off-shore somewhat south of her. Lila mentioned that her neighbor was heading out surfing. The waves are up. The Atlantic coast is shallow. Big waves can pile up and run out. I usta surf, in Ca and Hi; I was almost unconscious, almost instinctive about it when, due to circumstances, I left off surfing as a regular matter to go another way in 1984, and lost the touch. It would take me a month at the beach, every day, to get back into those muscles. I told her my "i-almost-drowned-one-time" trailer, on a day that became enormous, but started out tame...

Lila has a green thumb. She has an authentic attachment to, an affinity with the ground. She described to me the salt-marsh reeds waving in the wind with such exhilaration, such pleasure. And the pleasure of the dog, breasting through pursuing gulls. She sounded wonderful. She was giving me some of her good day, and I am so grateful. I needed it.

We exchanged fervent endearments, fairly frequently. Those are sometimes the hardest moments--mebbe for us both, surely for me; we haven't discussed it from the perspective of maintaining appropriate composure. And today I think I never even (audibly) sobbed until mebbe the last 10 seconds, when SG was heading into the house.

Lila is my darling...And she regards me fondly, too. Lucky me!
It's Always Better When We're Together...

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